The present disclosure relates to a seat apparatus, and particularly relates to a seat apparatus capable of ensuring both of elasticity and hardness of a vehicle seat.
A vehicle seat is typically configured such that a cushion member is covered with a skin material. Moreover, the cushion member is formed of a relatively-soft material, such as urethane foam, so that a favorable ride quality can be provided to a passenger of a vehicle. Note that a lower hardness of the cushion member results in a greater change in elasticity of the seat over time, and therefore, lowering of such elasticity is easily accelerated.
There is a vehicle seat configured such that an air cushion is provided at a position below a cushion member for the purpose of adjusting hardness of the vehicle seat (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Publication JP 2005-125861). According to the vehicle seat described in JP 2005-125861, compressed air is injected into the air cushion to expand the air cushion, and therefore, hardness of the seat can be set to a proper hardness. Thus, lowering of elasticity of the vehicle seat can be suppressed.
As described above, it has been demanded for a vehicle seat that both of elasticity and hardness are ensured as performance of the vehicle seat. In addition to the above-described demand, it has been demanded that the state of the vehicle seat is smoothly switched, and more specifically, is smoothly switched depending on the situation between the state of stably holding a passenger's posture and the state of not interrupting a posture change.
A flow path for supplying compressed air to a bag body such as the above-described air cushion is sometimes made of a bendable material (hereinafter referred to as a “flow path formation member”) such as a film. In such a configuration, when the flow path formation member is involuntarily bent, the flow path is clogged, and as a result, supply of compressed air to the air cushion and discharge of compressed air from the air cushion might not be properly performed.
Moreover, in a configuration in which electric equipment operating to supply compressed air is housed in a seat, a portion of a cushion member of the seat may be recessed such that a housing space is provided, for example. In this configuration, there is a possibility that foreign substances, rainwater, etc. having entered the housing space interfere with operation of the electric equipment.